2002 PNBA Fall Trade Show Preview

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association (PNBA) fall trade show will be held on September 13 - 15 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. A full slate of workshops and panels for booksellers, publishers, and authors, as well as breakfast, lunch, and dinner events, is planned.

On Thursday evening, September 12, prior to the opening of Tradeshow Northwest, the American Booksellers Association will present a special three-hour financial session for booksellers. The "Budgeting and Monitoring Workshop," led by ABA CEO Avin Mark Domnitz, will help booksellers establish a system of financial controls that will enable the owner/manager to predict performance and then measure outcomes against those predictions. Emphasis will be placed on close control of cash flow, which is essential to the successful operation of any business. Participants will receive a series of Excel worksheets that will allow integration of such a system into any store’s operations and will be invited to join a Special ABA Financial Group that will serve as the basis of a new ABACUS-style analysis of bookstore operations.

On Friday, September 13, PNBA has scheduled a full day of panels and workshops in addition to the booksellers school, "Bookselling Behind the Scenes," which runs from 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. The day starts at 8:00 a.m. with a 45-minute session for retail booksellers and another for publishers and authors, intended to help first-time attendees make the most of the show.

Programming scheduled for 9:00 a.m. includes bookseller workshops, "Bookstore Web Site Marketing" and "Our Reps Offer Their Picks of the Lists"; a panel explaining PNBA’s Book PROse Program; and a publisher workshop, "Marketing New Authors," with Anna Johnson.

Two panels for booksellers -- "Jump Start Your Business Brain," with Jeff Stamp, and "Not Just for Children Anymore," produced by the Children’s Book Council -- and an author workshop on "Do-It-Yourself Web Sites" are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. - 11:45 a.m.

Afternoon sessions beginning at 1:15 p.m., following PNBA’s Holiday Catalog Boxed Lunch, include "Our Reps Offer Their Picks of the Lists"; "Winning Book Efforts -- A Team Effort," with a panel of booksellers and publishers, produced by the Northwest Association of Book Publishers; "Buyers Spotlight the Fall Children’s Lists"; and, for publishers, "Contract Books: Best Sellers in Less than 90 Days," with Ronda Gates.

From 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. will be the "Celebration of Authors" at which 11 authors will talk about their new books, which have been deemed to have good "hand-selling" potential.

The day will be capped by the "Autographing & Dessert Party," from 8:00 p.m. -10:00 p.m., featuring the authors who spoke at the earlier Celebration, plus a few more special authors.

The trade exhibit, in the Oregon Convention Center Exhibit Hall, will be open from 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, September 14 - 15. Author autographing events will take place on the convention floor from 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and from 10:00 a.m. -12:30 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.

At its exhibit on the trade show floor, ABA will feature scheduled, live demos of the enhanced reporting options to the Book Sense Bestseller List and the online ABA Book Buyer's Handbook, and booksellers can get answers to questions regarding these programs, as well as any other ABA issues.

PNBA events on Saturday begin with the Book & Author Breakfast, from 8:00 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. at the Holiday Inn/Portland Convention Center, featuring T.A. Barron (The Hero’s Trail, PenguinPutnam Books for Young Readers), Chuck Palahniuk (Lullaby, Doubleday), and Jill Fredston (Rowing to Latitude, North Point Press).

A Booksellers Roundtable Lunch, from 12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., will provide booksellers the opportunity to discuss issues of concern. Other Saturday events include various PNBA working committee meetings throughout the day and the General Membership Meeting from 4:45 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.

A Cocktail Party, from 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., will precede the Banquet, featuring Lynda Barry (One Hundred Demons, Sasquatch Books), Bill Gates Sr. (Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why America Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes, Beacon Press), and Rosemary Wells (Getting to Know You! Rodgers and Hammerstein Favorites, HarperCollins).

The Book and Author Breakfast, beginning at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, will feature Jill Conner Browne, (The Sweet Potato Queens’ Big Ass Cookbook and Financial Planner, Three Rivers Press), Nikki Giovanni (Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems, William Morrow), and Mark Teague (Dear Mrs. LaRue, Scholastic).

"Meet the Authors Lunch," at which four nationally recognized authors will rotate from table to table, discussing their new books and answering questions, will be held on the exhibit floor from 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. on Sunday. Featured authors include David James Duncan (My Story as Told by Water, Sierra Club Books), Jayne Ann Krentz (Light in Shadow, Putnam), G.M. Ford (Black River, Morrow), and Jack Prelutsky (Scranimals, Greenwillow).

For more information and registration forms, visit the PNBA Web site at http://www.pnba.org/, e-mail [email protected], or call (541) 683-4363.